It appears that these low lying clouds have moved on to other parts of the country over this period of time. It seems the storms which were solely supposed to be headed for Gaza have shifted a bit and begun heading towards the West Bank where many folks have been stranded at checkpoints, oftentimes pregnant women trying to get to hospitals.

Now I have to say that this storm ended up being far more reaching that even I would have figured it could get. The winds of war had a far reaching effect in the State of Lebanon where they did significant damage to infrastructure and loss of civilian life. In fact as a result of the carnage due to two storms combining together in the area of South Lebanon and Northern Israel, watchdog group Amnesty International has called upon the EU to investigate for possible war crimes.

Well that’s it from the weather center. I have more on this storm later in the week. And remember folks there are things you can do to stop this storm from getting any more out of hand than it already has. Write to your elected officials and demand that they help out with humanitarian assistance; insist that a boycott of Israeli goods and services be implemented to slow down the path of this storm, and as the Priests in Jerusalem have done, condemn the evil known as Christian Zionism.

2 comments:

Flight 93by Naomi RagenAlthough I have been avoiding Hollywood movies about terrorattacks, for fear of running into another Spielberg,terrorist-apologist piece of crap, I read reviews of Flight93, and decided to chance it.For those unaware of the movie, it is the real-timereenactment of the fourth plane to be hijacked on 9/11. Thefirst three hit the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.Flight 93 crashed in an open field in Pennsylvania on itsway to crash into the White House. It was taken down by thepassengers who revolted against the killers in an effort towrest control of the cockpit from them.What I expected to see was the killers and the passengerswith their families before the flight, some background.Instead, the movie simply follows the killers the morning of9/11 from their homes and their Muslim morning prayersNewark Airport, making you feel as if you are sitting withthem in the departure lounge (a place I have been manytimes) on that fateful day. They look absolutely ordinary,and not even very Middle-Eastern, so that you wouldn't givethem a second look. We see the other passengers talking ontheir cell phones, doing crosswords -- absolutely nothing weall haven't seen and been a part of a hundred times.What gives this film its unique position is its stark,almost brutal, honesty. It simply follows the story asaccurately as it can, showing the day from the point of viewof the flight controllers, military, flight 93 pilots andpassengers. Since we all know the end, the tension can becut with a buzz saw. But ultimately, what you have is anamazing work, a film that allows you to forget you arewatching a film and not sitting on the plane on that fatefulday. What the film manages to accomplish, by not rammingan oh-so- politically correct point of view down your throatala Tony Kushner-- or any point of view-- is that the cloudsare brushed away and you are forced to see, no matter yourpolitical take, the stark reality, the enormity of the evilperpetrated that day in the name of someone's god (I do notcapitalize to distinguish this entity from the real God), bypeople who have the sick audacity to lift hands covered withthe blood of innocent strangers palms up in prayer. Why is this important? I'll tell you. Because peoplerefuse to see it for what it is. Refuse to get it. Theywant to tell themselves: "There are two sides to everystory, and you, the victim, couldn't have been blameless.Because if you were, than I, who am certainly blameless,could have something similarly horrible and unjust happen tome." Sometimes, when I talk to people about the horrors ofIslamic terrorism, they stare at me blankly. That is when Iwish they could have been sitting with me in the Park Hotelon Seder night.

I wish they could have seen the childrenand their parents and grandparents in the lobby, huggingeach other. I wish they could have heard the sound of tenkilograms of explosives detonating, blowing out all thewindows. I wish they could have seen the blood-drenchedfloor. Perhaps then they would understand that there is goodand evil, and it's absolute. Writer-director Paul Greengrass' detailed, precise real-timere-creation of this terrorist act does exactly that. Allthose who have been unable or unwilling to understand whatis at stake in the war against terror will perhaps awakenfrom their long, dangerous sleep, which does nothing butallow the terrorists to keep on killing. It's a film that will shake you to the core. It willfrighten you. And ultimately, it will enlighten you to thetruth of the human condition, to good and evil, and to howreally simple it all is when you open your eyes and seeclearly. Everyone should see this, except victims ofterror, because they've already seen it.